Nearly over...

You may think the absence on my blog indicates I have been so busy living life that I don’t have time to write. The truth is basically the opposite of this. I have been doing absolutely nothing! My excuse of course is Ramadan – unlike the locals, I am not able to live a normal life and still fast. So I sit at home in air-conditioned comfort! Hence the lack of blog entries.

That’s not to say nothing exciting has happened in my life. In fact the most exciting thing possible happened a few days ago – Karim came home with a mystery bag and told me to shut my eyes. When I was allowed to open them again there were pomegranates on the table! Real pomegranates! Pomegranate season isn’t really until October, so no idea where these ones came from, and we haven’t seen them since in the market place. They are not the greatest, still a little bitter but it’s very promising of things to come!

Ramadan is still going ok, though I am looking forward to when it’s all over in a few days! It will certainly be an adjustment going back to normal eating and sleeping patterns. Recently we have been going to sleep at around 4am, and I don’t wake up until around 2pm. This leaves me only about 5 hours to fast, which I think might be cheating a little! These last few days we have been breaking the fast with various members of Karim’s family and friends – all Ramadan we have promised to have breakfast with them so now with only a few days to go we have been trying to make sure we get around to everyone’s house!

But soon it will be Eid and I’m really looking forward to it, this will be the first one for me here in Morocco. I already have my new jellaba made, and I’m just waiting for the matching slippers! We had a taste of Eid yesterday – the 27th day of Ramadan when all the little girls and boys have new dresses and clothes. The girls especially go all out with makeup, jewellery, henna and getting their hair done. Even babies! The night before is called the holy night or night of power, where the mosques are open all night for people to pray. They believe this night is when Allah first started revealing the Qur’an to Mohammed.

So with the end of Ramadan in sight, I am looking forward to resuming normal life. Drinking orange juice in my cafe, eating my cornflakes at normal breakfast time, drinking water when I’m thirsty, going to bed at a reasonable hour. All things I have missed – but I wouldn’t take away my Ramadan experience for any of that.

The first pomegranates of the season!